That trinity often results in what I call the beginners’ photo. I’m sure you’ve seen it and can conjure up a mental image of it from my words alone. The model, usually a blonde, faces the camera, her back towards the ocean. She rests on the sand, her knees sinking slightly into it as waves wash around her feet and legs. Her arms are up in the air, her hands playing through her hair. Her expression sits somewhere between an orgasm and “this water is bloody cold.” It’s a cliche shot. Typically the first in any burgeoning model’s portfolio. And I bloody hate it.

So here we have a photo shoot that has exactly the trinity that usually results in such a photo: photographer, model, beach. The photographer is Julia Kiecksee. The model is Franziska Rathmann. The beach is Elbstrand in Hamburg. And yet the unholy trinity that normally creates the cliche is destroyed, the typical image does not exist. In its place is something that avoids all the cliches, offering up a photo shoot themed around wool and nature and, as such, one that is more suited to fall 2011 then it is to the cliche of ‘yet another model in a bikini posing on a beach’.

Click the thumbnails for full pictures:

You can see all of Julia Kiecksee’s photo shoot by clicking on the thumbnails, while you can see more of her work at www.juliakiecksee.de.